DIGITAL SYSTEM FOR ORGANIZING DIVERSE INFORMATION
A system for creating links among diverse elements in order to convey a variety of logical relationships. The system uses a unique approach to browser development in order to allow for the delayed transformation of data which has undergone either a change to its actual value, or a change in its relationship to other data. Linked data is left unevaluated until a user desires to view the data through a user interface. This delayed evaluation conserves bandwidth and system resources, and further enables the system to more efficiently create, organize, and maintain relationships between large volumes of diverse elements.
1 . A system for organizing diverse data within a computer processing environment comprising:
at least one composite type-link comprising;
a source element;
a target element;
a type-link for relating the source element to the target element wherein the type-link has user-definable parameters, and wherein a user-elected relationship defines how changes to the source element and target element are made based on changes made to the target element and source element, respectively;
a user interface for displaying the at least one composite type-link; and
a kernel that propagates changes between the source elements and the target elements, and conducts delayed transformations wherein changes indicated by type-links are not evaluated until there is a change to a source element corresponding to a respective type-link, and the kernel will re-compute only transformations dependent on the source element corresponding to the respective type-link.
2 . The system as in claim 1 wherein the source element, target element, and type-link relating the source element to the target element are written in eXtensible Markup Language.
3 . The system as in claim 1 further comprising at least one complex composite type-link structure comprising at least two composite type-links.
4 . The system as in claim 1 further comprising a kernel, the kernel further comprising:
a composite type-link cache for retrieving all the composite type-links to or from the source element and the target element.
5 . The system as in claim 1 wherein the changes to the source element or target element are effected by a eXtensible Markup Language element for delayed evaluation, the element being saved to enable future propagation of changes.
6 . The system as in claim 3 wherein the complex composite type-link structure comprises multiple dependent composite type-links, and wherein the multiple dependent composite type-links undergo delayed evaluation.
7 . The system as in claim 1 wherein the user interface for displaying the at least one composite type-link displays information in both eXtensible HyperText Markup Language and Scalable Vector Graphics.
8 . (canceled)
9 . The system as in claim 1 further comprising user action commands.
10 . The system as in claim 1 further comprising javascript event listeners designed to capture a user's interaction with the user interface.
11 . The system as in claim 1 further comprising a javascript transformation for forming the composite type-link.
12 . The system as in claim 1 wherein at least one of the source element and the target element exists in an outline.
13 . A method for organizing diverse data within a computer processing environment comprising:
entering diverse data into a computer processing environment;
forming at least one composite type-link, the formation comprising;
designating a source element;
designating a target element;
creating a type-link that relates the source element to the target element;
defining characteristics of the type-link that define how changes to the source element and target element impact the target element and source element, respectively; and
propagating changes between the source elements and the target elements, and conducting delayed transformations wherein changes indicated by type-links are not evaluated until there is a change to a source element corresponding to a respective type-link, and only transformations dependent on the source element corresponding to the respective type-link are recomputed.
14 . The method of claim 13 wherein the source element, target element, and type-link relating the source element to the target element are written in eXtensible Markup Language.
15 . The method of claim 13 further comprising designating at least one complex composite type-link structure comprising at least two composite type-links.
16 . The method of claim 13 wherein at least a portion of the diverse data is html formatted data pulled from an internet source.
17 . The method of claim 13 wherein defining characteristics of the type-link comprises accessing a context control menu and selecting a pre-configured type-link configuration.
18 . The method of claim 15 wherein designating the complex composite type-link structure comprises designating one of the at least two composite type-links to have a first configuration type, and designating the second of the at least two composite type-links to have a second configuration type.
19 . The method of claim 13 wherein designating at least one of the source element and the target element comprises hovering a pointer over an expansion control to expand an outline, thereby exposing at least one the source element and the target element.
20 . The method of claim 13 further comprising re-defining the configuration of the type-link by hovering a pointer over the type-link to induce the appearance of a type-link menu for selecting an alternative type-link configuration.
21 . The method of claim 13 further comprising viewing the at least one composite type-link by conducting a user-definable action to activate a composite type-link viewing mode for selecting, modifying, and deleting composite type-links.
22 . The method of claim 13 further comprising viewing the at least one composite type-link by conducting a user-definable action to activate a composite type-link outline viewing mode for selecting, modifying, and deleting composite type-links.
23 . The method of claim 13 further comprising defining a system of type-link indicators for placing with at least one of the source element and the target element, the type-link indicators enabling identification of the composite type-link when at least one of the source element and target element are not visible on a user interface.
24 . The method of claim 21 further comprising sorting the composite type-link viewing mode by at least one of type-link type, type-link author, type-link creation date, type-link modification date, type-link priority, and type-link relationship to other type-links.
25 . The method of claim 13 further comprising organizing the diverse data into an outline.